Darling On Whether There Will Be An MLB Season: 'Not As Optimistic As I Was Before'

LISTEN: Mets Great Joins Moose And Maggie

Mets great Ron Darling says he's losing faith that there will be a Major League Baseball season in 2020.

Like virtually the rest of the entire sports world, baseball has been put on hold due to the coronavirus outbreak, and it's unclear when the majors will start up again.

"If you would've asked me when all this came out, I would've had a detailed plan on how they could get through a season," Darling told WFAN's Marc Malusis and Maggie Gray on Wednesday. "And as every day passes, my optimism wanes. I think when you see places like Maryland and Virginia and Toronto putting things in place that are through -- in Canada especially, in Toronto -- through the month of June, you start to see how many hurdles baseball would have to jump over just to start the season. And that's not even to take into any account what would happen if a player tested positive on his team during the season while it was going on.

"I'm not as optimistic as I was before. And I hope, like many, many times, I'm wrong again," the former pitcher and SNY analyst added.

If Major League Baseball does give the green light this year, Darling said he has no doubt that players will be ready. He is concerned, however, whether they'd stay healthy.

"I think you're going to see a lot of injuries," Darling said. "We always see injuries with pitchers anyways, but we're going to see a lot of injuries with players and pitchers just because it's such an unknown. If I were sitting at home today and I still played, would I throw for 30 minutes? Do I throw off the mound? Are we going to start in June, July? Are we not playing this year? There's just so many unanswered questions, and there's no recipe to get ready for the season."

To listen to Moose and Maggie's interview with Darling, click on the audio player above.